The Best Brand / Effie 2005 national award ceremony was held on October 26. At present, this is the most important branding award in Russia. These kinds of awards serve as a litmus test which indicates how stable a company is and how efficiently it promotes its products and services. The winners of the Best Brand / Effie 2005 award were announced in the Expocentr (Krasnaya Presnya) exhibition center. The event was organized by RBC Holding. Representatives of top Russian companies, which had submitted their best projects in 2005 for the award, were waiting for the results from the International Steering Commission.

The award ceremony began with a short performance based on cult novel "The Lord of the Rings". Nasty-looking orcs along with people dressed in office clothes appeared on the stage armed with swords. The latter won the battle, of course, symbolizing the victory of the Best Brand. Such an unusual opening of the ceremony was connected with the design of the awards given to the winners. These were big golden, silver and bronze rings with the letter E engraved in them, denoting the important association between the Best Brand award and the international Effie system, the world's most important award in the sphere of marketing communications.

After the spectacular opening, the award ceremony itself began, hosted by My Fair Nanny stars Olga Prokofyeva and Boris Smolkin.

"As you are all aware, there's no brand without a legend," RBC's General Director Yury Rovensky said in his welcome speech to the guests and award winners. "With this beautiful ceremony we did our best to stress this very important and fundamental principle of brand building. Efficient advertising not only helps to sell, it also gives a dream and builds a lifestyle." It is worth noting that this year the Best Brand / Effie entered a new era. A record number of applications was submitted - 270 - which created the necessity to add two new award categories to the existing 24.

Among the award winners were well-known brands such as Orbit, Uslada, Narzan, Arsenalnoye beer, Duracell, several BMW car models, Samsung, Shatura furniture, System Garant, Mirinda, Aeroflot, Gazprom, Euroset, CATS musical and Glamour magazine - a total of eight dozen brands predetermining the situation in various market segments. The Grand Prix went to Sitronics (New Name category), Beeline (Image Change category) and Samsung LCD TV sets (Reputation and Trust category).

"The Best Brand / Effie award puts us in a certain frame of mind," Commercial Director of Borodin Meat House David Chikvashvili commented. "Regardless of the result, applying for the award makes the company mobilize its efforts and have its forces re-grouped." Igor Kasyanov, a Business Development Director at the JWT/RAVI CIS advertising group, states the following: "Today, a brand is something consumers put their trust in. This award ceremony makes it possible for us to learn from each other, while those most deserving nominees win."

As far as the Best Brand experts are concerned, the award ceremony has become a good opportunity for them to evaluate the state of the Russian market in general. "The market has even more segments now and is way more sensitive to the demands of individual customers," member of the award's steering committee and Director of Depot WPF Alexei Anfreyev reported. "It is obvious now that a well-developed strategy brings success and a further growth factor to every single company. Of course, there is no way we can compete with international brand giants in terms of sales volume. But as far as marketing strategy is concerned, many Russian companies are decent rivals to them."